Its not the end
by bones-son
Summary: What would have happened if Wash got injured in the final battle in season 11? T for swears and description of injury. Angsty I'm sorry but read to the end.


Bullets whizzed through the air and grenades blasted in the distance, often accompanied by a "fuck yeah!" from Donut or Grif. Tucker crouched behind a rock, trying to catch his breath. They had been fighting for a while now, and it seemed that the reinforcements that Felix had promised were not going to be coming. Tucker re-loaded his assault rifle and peeked out from behind his rock. Immediately a bullet flew past him and he ducked back behind the safety of the rock quickly. He surveyed the area. Donut and Grif were kneeling on the roof of blue base, Grif throwing his future cubes and Donut throwing plasma grenades. Simmons and Sarge were behind some sandbags, Sarge dealing out one-liners as he shot down the enemies and Simmons complementing him. Caboose hid behind one of Freckle's legs as the robot fired at the enemy. Despite their efforts, it was obvious that the odds were not in their favour. The reds and blues were outnumbered 2 to 1 and the Federal Army was breaching some of their defenses already. Tucker sighed and leaned against the rock, exhausted. He was not used to this, fighting a real enemy army. Sure, he'd had to fight Tex and those guys in the desert, but this was different. This was united armies fighting to the death for control of a planet. He certainly hadn't asked for this war.

He leaned out from behind his rock and began to shoot at the Federal Army troops. Suddenly Sarge yelled and ran out from behind cover and began to run towards the enemy soldiers, shooting them at point blank range, Simmons covering him. Surprised, Tucker watched as Sarge took down soldier after soldier. And then he heard more yells.

"For the New Republic!" reinforcements had arrived.

Tucker breathed a sigh of relief and reclined against the rock again, not noticing the soldier sneaking up on him from behind.

"Tucker! Watch out!" Tucker turned towards the voice and gaped up at the Federal Army soldier, who had a knife in his hand and was already on the downward descent towards Tucker.

Out of nowhere Wash slammed into the soldier, grappling for the knife. They fell to the ground in a cloud of dust and Tucker watched, unable to move.

Finally Wash managed to pull out his pistol and shoot the soldier in the chest, and then kicked him far away.

"Yeah! Great job Wash!" Tucker commended.

Wash sat on his knees, staring at the fallen soldier for a long time.

"Wash?"

Wash turned slowly towards his comrade and Tucker felt his stomach drop.

Tucker grabbed Wash's shoulders as he began to fall and propped his head up on his knees. The knife had found a break in the armour and was embedded deep into Wash's stomach.

Tucker gulped down his horror as he shakily pulled off Wash's helmet. He knew that much at least, that it would be easier for Wash to breathe with it off.

Wash gasped for air, on the brink of hyperventilating and stared at the sky, his eyes scanning it desperately as if searching for something.

"Whoa, I'm right here okay? I've got you."

Wash's eye's found Tucker and he seemed to relax a bit.

"HEY! I NEED A PARAMEDIC!" Tucker screamed at one of the reinforcements. The soldier nodded and ran back to where they had come from.

"You're gonna be alright, Wash, there's help on the way."

Wash gave Tucker a shaky laugh. "I've been stabbed before, Tucker. This is…is…" He gasped and coughed.

"It's nothing." Tucker said firmly.

"No, it's not." Wash said, his voice quick, as if a few words took all of his breath away. "I've been lucky up till now."

"No, you've been a great soldier. Stop talking like this is the end. It's not," Tucker's own voice breaking. He went to pull the knife out, but Wash quickly grabbed the knife with both hands.

"It's keeping most of the bleeding at bay for now." Wash assured Tucker. Tucker didn't think it was doing any good. There was already a great deal of blood staining Wash's armour and it was beginning to seep into the grass, crawling towards Tucker's legs like a slow wave.

"WHERE'S THAT PARAMEDIC?" Tucker screamed.

"Tucker…if I don't make it—"

"Stop." Tucker shook his head. "I've already had 2 leaders leave, or die, I'm not letting you go too. It isn't fair."

_Not fair not fair not fair not fair not fair._

Wash laughed, but he quickly stopped and covered his mouth. "Honestly, I'm doing my best not to die." He looked down at his blood covered hand. "I'm sorry."

Tucker shook his head. "No, I am. This isn't—you weren't supposed to—"

"That's what leaders are for. We look out for our teams." Wash tried to give him a smile.

Tucker nodded and his breath caught in his throat, unable to say anything else.

Despite Tucker's best efforts to will Wash to be okay, he could tell it wasn't enough. Wash held the knife tightly between trembling fingers, as if it would help stop the bleeding. Tucker didn't know much about anything medical, but he did know that if the knife had stabbed any internal organs, Wash would be out of commission quick. He tried to figure out where the organs were, but he gave up, not knowing enough about anatomy.

Tucker looked up to see Caboose walking towards them. The younger soldier dropped down next to Tucker and looked at his CO with a concerned expression.

"Agent Washingtub? What happened?" he asked like the innocent kid he was.

Wash weakly raised his hand and waved it in the air, dismissing the question. "It's nothing Caboose, just a scratch."

Tucker knew that Wash was putting on a confident front for Caboose, but he wasn't fooling anyone. His once quick breaths were beginning to slow down and were shallower. He was obviously in a great deal of pain. It seemed like each breath he took brought another swell of blood.

Caboose pulled off his own helmet and wiped at his cheeks. "You're not going to leave us like Church, are you?"

Wash stared at the young soldier, his eyes sad and weary. "I—" He cut off as Sarge, Simmons, Grif and Donut came running over to the trio.

"Hey! We're winning! What're you all lolling about for—" Sarge stopped as he noticed the fallen soldier. "Oh."

"Holy shit." Grif whispered.

Simmons sat down next to the Blues and gave Tucker an apologetic glance.

"Doc! Get over here!" Sarge shouted.

Sarge kneeled next to Washington and gave him a firm pat on the soldier. "You were more messed up than this on that ice planet, Blue. Don't give up on us yet."

Wash looked at the Red CO incredulously.

"Hey, gray isn't really blue. It's more of a dark shade of red!"

Felix ran up to the group and looked down at Wash. "Oh, damn." He swore under his breath. "First Locus gets away, now this…"

"Where the _fuck_ is that paramedic?" Tucker growled.

Wash grabbed Tucker's forearm and he quickly turned his gaze back to his friend. Wash was gasping for air, his face one of shock and horror as he tried to get more. His grip on Tucker's arm was tight, as if he needed assurance that the other soldier was still there.

"What's happening?" Caboose looked fearfully at Tucker for answers.

"Too long without medical attention…too much loss of blood…he's bound to be having trouble breathing." Donut muttered.

"Why didn't you say you knew about this kind of stuff?" Grif asked accusingly.

"Hey, I don't know how to apply it; I just learned it from Doc!" Donut defended himself.

"Can it cupcake. It doesn't do any good, anyway."

"Wash?" Tucker asked tentatively

Wash's breaths had begun to slow down, as if his body had realized it was not going to be able to get the air it needed and was trying to conserve what little energy it had left. Wash turned his eyes to Tucker and what he saw made him want to scream at the world. It wasn't fair.

"No, you're not going to die."

"I've had a good run, Tucker." Wash said. "I've been through hell…and just when I though I couldn't believe in anyone anymore, a couple of sim. troopers changed it completely.

Caboose grabbed Wash's other hand, and let the tears flow freely down his face. The reds stood, feeling their own forms of pity and suffering despite the former freelancer being on the opposite team. Felix held his head in his hands in anger. The battlefield was too quiet, the silence was almost tangible, like it was laying on them heavily and trying to force itself down their throats. The sun was beginning to dip down behind to rocks of the canyon, spilling a red light everywhere.

Tucker blinked hard and glared though the mist. "Don't you dare give up Wash." He threatened.

"Wash?"

The former freelancer's eyes began to close.

"Hey."

His breaths slowed.

"Stop, you can't."

Wash's grip on Tucker's arm began to loosen.

"Wash? Wash! DAMMIT!"

….

The sun had only just begun to peek out from behind the mountains. It painted the robin's egg blue sky pastel colours of pink and orange, like a baby giant had found some paints and had decided to slash them across his room's door. The songbirds were only just beginning to sing. They hopped from branch to branch and spread their rainbow feathers, warbling, crooning and trilling, searching for a mate. The trees' leaves were finally full and were a vibrant shade of green. Dew speckled the grass and gave it a crystal appearance. The air was still a bit nippy, but Tucker didn't mind the cool breeze on his bare skin.

He sat on the roof of Blue base, his legs swinging in the air as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the quiet of the early morning, before the Reds or Caboose started screaming. This was his favourite time of day. Not breakfast, or even night were he got to go to sleep, it was these rare mornings in spring when he woke up early enough to have the canyon to himself. He enjoyed not wearing his armour, and the songs the birds would sing, but he enjoyed the sunrise the most of all. There was a time when he had no respect for it. A new day was just another day of arguing and more recently in his life, running drills, but now he had come to appreciate the raw beauty of it. A new day meant a day full of possibilities. A new day meant there was a chance to right the wrongs of the day before and start anew. Apologies could be made, projects could be finished. Everyone woke up with a fresh head—or at least he did. The Reds always seemed to do the same thing they'd been doing before, bickering. He didn't always get to make the apologies or finish what he'd started the day before, and much more often than not he never did, but at least there was a chance at it. Tucker sighed contentedly and closed his eyes.

He opened them as he heard the creak of footsteps coming up the ladder. He turned to see Caboose walking over to him.

"Good morning Tucker."

"Hey, Caboose."

"I don't usually see you up here so early. Usually I'm up here by myself." Caboose observed as he sat down next to Tucker.

"Yeah, I know. Sometimes I like being up here too."

Caboose nodded knowingly. "It is nice up here."

"It certainly is." Tucker closed his eyes again.

"I like it when the sky is painted yellow the best." Caboose told him. "Blue and yellow, I like them together."

"So do I, Caboose. So do I." Tucker nodded to himself, his eyes still closed.

They sat in silence for a long time. "How come you like it up here, Tucker?" Caboose asked suddenly.

"I…dunno." Tucker opened his eyes. "It feels free up here, y'know? Like we could touch the sky, or something." He raised his hand to demonstrate. "And its quiet… or it was." He looked sternly at Caboose, but Caboose knew it was just an act.

"Sometimes, I like to look up at those rocks, and watch for Church to come home. That's where I last saw him, so when he comes back, that's where he'll be, right?"

Tucker turned to the younger soldier, surprised that he was telling him this, of all people, but wasn't really surprised to hear it.

"I sit out here all night and wait. The moon starts there," Caboose pointed. "And ends there." He pointed across the other side of the sky. "I wait and wait, but he never comes home."

Tucker turned away and looked to the top of the canyon. The sun had moved a little bit higher.

"But he never said good bye, so he'll be back." Caboose nodded, reassuring himself. "He'll be back."

"Yeah, I'm sure he will."

Tucker sighed heavily and looked up to the sky. The moon could still be seen, just barely. It was nothing but a sliver today. It was far away from the sun, as if they were trying to catch each other, but never could. Every day and every night, the sun tried to catch the moon, but the moon was too quick.

"Hey! What're you two doing up here so early?"

Caboose and Tucker turned to see their CO, Agent Washington leaning against the ladder's handrails, his stomach still in bandages and the strain of standing clear on his face.

Tucker quickly got up. "Wash! You're not supposed to walk around on you own! Did you seriously climb that ladder?"

Wash shrugged but let himself be helped over to the edge of the roof and sat down thankfully. It had only been a month or so since the battle, but Wash had demanded to leave the infirmary, assuring the doctors that he was fine. They had eventually given in, on the terms that he would be helped with walking and the like at all times and a nurse would check on him every day.

Wash looked at the pair's worried stares and sighed weightily.

"Seems like you guys are always up here, nowadays." Wash said quickly, keen to change the subject. "I see what the attraction is." He looked around at the peaceful landscape. "Though I never thought of you as much of a nature person, Tucker."

Tucker shrugged. "It's undisturbed up here. I like it."

Wash nodded and the trio sat in silence, taking in the scenery.

Suddenly Caboose hugged Wash and Wash flinched, but realizing it was a harmless hug awkwardly patted the younger soldier's shoulder.

"We missed this, Agent Washington!" Caboose explained. "When you were gone, it wasn't nearly as fun." He pouted at Tucker. "Tucker wouldn't draw or talk to me. He'd just sit."

Wash gave Tucker a harmless swat on the back. "So you did miss me."

Tucker glared at the two. "Are you kidding? I just never would have been able to deal with Caboose by myself, is all I was worried about." He turned away with a huff.

Wash allowed himself a smile before wincing and putting a hand to his abdomen.

Immediately Tucker was on his feet and pulling Wash to his own. "Okay, that's enough time standing around for today. Back to bed."

Caboose stood up too and grabbed Wash's other arm and the two helped him over to the ladder.

"Yeah…I guess so." Wash wouldn't admit it, but even sitting up for short periods of time tired him, and where the knife had stabbed him would begin to throb.

He looked at the two soldiers whom had come to look up to him as a leader, and was grateful for these friends that were worried and cared for him. He couldn't of asked for a better team.


End file.
